Let me give you a little background on who I am before you trust me with your guildmates' lives! My name is Tabitha and my Priest is known as Starsz. I have been playing a Holy Priest since the release of BWL in Vanilla content. In Vanilla I played a US 50 guild rank level, in TBC I played in a US 150 guild rank level, I played very little at the beginning and end of Wrath at a US 200 level and I currently am a part of (shameless plug!) Infallible, a US 15+ ranked guild. I do consider myself an exceptional player by all standards, but I, like everyone, am not perfect! I have tried playing other classes, Resto Shaman, Resto/Balance Druid... but nothing sticks to me like a Priest, especially Holy. I hope that others reading this will see and feel the love I have for the spec and truly understand its potential.

2. Disclaimers

While I am an experienced and high end raiding Priest, what I suggest to you isn't the only way to do things. Take what you want from this guide and leave behind your opinions as well. I really want this to grow into a massive guide with many views on how different situations can be handled because my playstyle isn't the only playstyle that will work when it comes to raiding and I accept and embrace that. Even I am always looking for people to discuss the class with and discover new methods of handling situations and pushing our limits to be the best that we can be. I will gladly discuss with anyone the ins and outs of why I say what I say and also implement other people's viewpoints into my guide.

I also am not a "mathy-theorycrafter" so please, if you have math to prove me wrong, or correct something incorrect in this guide do not be afraid to put it up here! I also would not object to anyone providing math proving theories I have mentioned.

This guide is meant to give you some insight into high end raiding and little tips and tricks you can pick up to better your play. If you are a very beginner Priest then you will want to read Ynna's Priest PvE Holy Guide (For Beginners!) before reading this one. While we cover some of the same concepts, Ynna goes more in depth on the very basic elements of being a Holy Priest, whereas I assume you know these things.

Now, please, read on! I hope you enjoy reading it and learning from it as much as I have enjoyed learning what I have learned and sharing it with you!

I'm not going to make a bunch of specs this go around for 4.3 as there are so many variations you can take and all will be fine. The only talents you really want to decide whether you need or not based on your raid & playstyle are the following:

Tome of Light: With the changes to Holy Word: Sanctuary in 4.3 I highly recommend you take this talent. HW:Sanc is very efficient and powerful and HW:Serenity is fixed and provides great tank healing and single target throughput.

Inspiration: Do you have a Resto Shaman that can commonly heal the tank (their buff is better anyways) - if not, take this. You might want to ask your raid leader/healing officer whether or not they want you to have this.

Surge of Light: More beneficial in 10m due healing single target more often. Look through your logs and see if you're casting single target heals enough to warrant it.

Divine Touch/Rapid Renewal: Personally I don't find this talent as attractive in Dragon Soul so far as there is usually enough damage going out to have to cast Prayer of Healing and not staggering Renews, although, again, base this on your comp/playstyle. I find the other talents in this tier are more beneficial than the DT/RR combo.

Spirit of Redemption: Great for progression raiding and getting that last push if you die or the end of a fight. Personal preference though.

Test of Faith is better than Blessed Resil!

4. Glyphs

Prime Glyphs

Glyph of Lightwell - The only situation in which you wouldn't want this Glyph is if, for whatever reason, your raid is not making use of all of your charges of Lightwell or a fight really just doesn't cater to it because of being spread out, etc (Ex: Sinestra)

Glyph of Guardian Spirit - Great for situations when a lot of tank cooldowns are needed, not so great for your "average" encounter. For example: if you are only using GS when the tank is low/on a whim then this Glyph isn't going to be as beneficial compared to an encounter such as Magmaw where you need cooldowns on the tank during Mangle. This Glyph really is "what you make of it."

Glyph of Renew - This will generally be the Glyph you interchange with Guardian Spirit. The increased throughput on Renew is great and it is going to be the Glyph you want to use if you're going to run a Rapid Renewal build.

Glyph of Prayer of Healing - This is pretty much a must-have. It increases the HPM and HPS of your primary raid healing spell and there will not be a situation where you won't use this Glyph.

Glyph of Flash Heal - Useful when learning encounters for throughput on low players. If you find that you aren't triage healing (or not triage healing with FH) then don't use this Glyph.

Major Glyphs

Glyph of Circle of Healing - Pure HPS increase on CoH, one of our primary raid healing tools. Whether or not you want to use this in 10m is kind of up to you, but my guess is you do. You just need to be better at managing your CoH usage instead of spamming it off cooldown, rather only when a significant number of people need to be healed by it.

Glyph of Dispel Magic - If you're going to be any sort of dispelling you're going to want to use this Glyph.

Every other Glyph is this category is somewhat gimmick and is usable on a case-by-case basis. Smite (Divine Accuracy) can also be used for fights with a lot of down time and you're fine on mana and you'll also want the Smite Glyph if you are running an Archangel build.

The age old question: what stats do I use?! Obviously any piece of gear you pick up is going to have Intellect on it. Intellect is your main focus for a few reasons:

Increases your total mana pool

Increases your spell power

Increases your spell critical hit

After Intellect you want to make sure your gear, or at least most of it, as Spirit on it. These two stats are the bread and butter of being a Holy Priest. What does Spirit do for you?

Increases mana regen in combat

Increases mana regen out of combat

"Why is Spirit so important?" - Priest

Without it you'll run out of mana, of course! Holy Priests also have an awesome talent known as Holy Concentration: Increases the amount of mana regeneration from Spirit while in combat by an additional 30%. By default all classes maintain 50% of their out of combat regen while in combat, which means a Holy Priest maintains 80% of all regen while in combat. Your regen is also calculated on some weird math formula based on both Intellect and Spirit, so never completely ignore Spirit otherwise you're really hurting your regen!

"Ok, so I have all of this Intellect, and all of my gear has Intellect on it, now what?!" - Priest

Great question! The following is the basic stat breakdown that you can follow:

Intellect -> Spirit -> Haste = Mastery -> Critical Strike

"But how can Haste equal Mastery?! How do they fit into the big picture? Why is Crit last?" - Priest

Crititical Strike rating is the least valuable stat to a healer due to its unreliability. Crit heals heal for 200% of the normal value of the heal and proc talents such as Inspiration, assuming you are specced into it. While Crit is very useful at times, it is not worth picking up gear with it, reforging for it or gemming it for a few reasons: it is unreliable (it will often happen when you don't need it and not when you do), Crit rating is more expensive (it takes more Crit rating to reach 1% than Haste or Mastery) and we gain the Crit we need for tank healing via Chakra: Serenity. This does not mean Crit is terrible, but we do not want to strive for it.

1. What's all this nonsense about Haste vs. Mastery

Let's start out with what Haste does for you:

Increases your spell casting speed

Decreases your global cooldown (GCD)

"But if I cast faster doesn't that mean I cast more spells and thus I will go out of mana faster?!" - Priest

Yes and no. Haste is extremely beneficial in many, many situations. The #1 benefit of Haste is saving people's lives. Yes, 0.1 second can really mean the difference between life and death. I'm sure you've all been in that situation of "my heal was a fraction of a second from going off!" when discussing why a tank/player perished.

Also, generally raid damage comes in waves: burst -> lull -> burst. Therefore you are not spam casting non-stop (at least in most situations) and thus you are getting pure gain from being able to get your heals off faster and everyone stabilized before the next burst. Haste is considered to provide purely an HPS (heal per second) increase.

Now let's shift our focus to what Mastery does for you:

Your direct healing spells heal for an additional percent over 6 sec. Each point of Mastery provides an additional 1.25% of healing over 6 sec.

So what does this mean? It means that when you cast Prayer of Healing on a group and you are hitting all 5 players in the group you are healing them for: direct PoH heal, Glyph of PoH (assuming you have it, which you should!), and then another HoT, Echo of Light.

Mastery proves to be useful in instances where the entire raid takes massive amounts of damage and your EoL will have the ability to fully tick 6 sec. with little to no overheal. It's also very important to keep in mind that the more Mastery you have, the bigger each tick from EoL becomes. So even if you are consistently seeing 30% overheal on your EoL as your Mastery increases, this is okay. By each tick hitting for more you are essentially saving more lives because you are filling up that HP bar much faster. Mastery provides an increase in HPM (heal per mana) and HPS.

"Okay I understand all of that but how does it apply to me? Which stat should I choose? Should I mix them together or just stack one?" - Priest

There's no right or wrong answer here, unfortunately. I wish it was as bread and butter as some other classes/specs, but it's not. I will, however, provide some guidelines to help you make the best choice for certain thresholds.

2. Haste Thresholds

My recommended method for handling a balance of Haste and Mastery would be using the following Haste "thresholds". These thresholds will bring you to reduced cast times on your default 2.5 sec. cast spells (Prayer of Healing, Greater Heal, etc). These thresholds should act more like guidelines... for instance: if you're at 1289 haste rating you're close enough to 2.1 seconds for it to be okay.

All values assume 3% Haste from Darkness and 5% Haste from raid buffs. All math was provided by Kilee of <The Earthen Guard>, thank you so much Kilee!

What I am recommending here is that you strive to reach whichever threshold you think will benefit you the most, and then stack Mastery. For example, if you want a cast time of 2.1 sec. on your PoH you will want to gain 1290 Haste Rating from gear/reforging/gems and no more. Once you reach this rating you will want to stack Mastery in gear/reforging/gems.

"What if I just want to stack Haste? Or Mastery? What about that 12.5% for Renew? Is that important?" - Priest

It is completely viable to simply stack Haste or Mastery. The choice is yours. I recommend you make this choice based on your raid comp, the skill level of other healers on your raid, your raid strategies, etc. It very well may take you some time to test out different stats and see what works best for you.

The infamous 12.5%! At 12.5% Haste you gain an extra tick on your Renew (to gain a 2nd additional tick requires 35% Haste, which is unattainable), Divine Hymn and Hymn of Hope. What benefit does this Renew tick give? It provides more HPM on your Renew. You should be primarily keeping Renew up on the tank(s), in which case that extra tick is great. When it comes to raid healing with Renew it is very situational, not just the extra tick, but the spell itself. If you would like to jump right into that part of my healing guide click here. Is the 12.5% necessary? No. Should you reach for it? Yes, simply because it is so easy to hit, even if you choose to fully stack Mastery - if nothing else simply for the HoH and DH ticks.

3. How much Spirit is too much?

Pretty much never. Holy Priests rely on Spirit so much more than other classes that we do have continue to gain it in every way possible. In some ways Spirit will increase your throughput because you'll be able to cast more expensive heals more often.

"When should I stop looking for Spirit, if at all?" - Priest

This really varies on a lot of things: your playstyle, your raid strategies, your healing team's playstyles, your raid DPS, etc. The ultimate goal is to complete each encounter and end it with very little to no mana. Any mana you end with is essentially wasted mana and this means that you have more regen than you need to keep your raid alive.

Although some fights require more healing than others, therefore you want to focus more on maintaining regen for the more intense encounters rather the easier. To make up for the "easier" encounters you can use your less cost effective spells more often. Also, the more times your raid does an encounter the more likely you are to end with more mana due to the entire raid performing better and having more gear (in most cases).

I would recommend picking up every piece of Spirit gear you can and if you wind up with excessive mana just reforge it out.

Don't forget that you can have as much Spirit as you possibly want! As previously mentioned, the more Spirit you have the more you can increase your throughput by using those inefficient spells and producing more Serendipity for yourself. Which method you choose is really up to you!

"So, after all of this, how should I gem?" - Priest

Generally it is best practice to gem for socket bonuses unless the bonus is something you are not supposed to strive for, such as Crit. If you do not need the Spirit you can avoid socket bonuses with Spirit and Blue sockets and gem pure Intellect. However, pay attention to the bonuses; sometimes a socket bonus will be +20 Intellect and thus it is the same Intellect gain to gem +20 Intellect +20 Spirit in a Blue instead of skipping over the bonus with a +40 Intellect... think of it as a free 20 Spirit.

Mythical Mana Potion - Great for immediate need of mana when you cannot take the time for a Conc pot

Volcanic Potion - Great for immediate need of increased throughput in a short duration while gaining some mana return. If you manage to take a Volcanic Potion then Shadow Fiend then Hymn of Hope you will gain nearly as much mana as you would from a Mythical Mana Potion while also gaining the increased throughput. You can view the math here. It is also useful to your raid to pot 1-3 seconds before a boss is pulled (known as pre-potting) on fights that require a lot of burst healing at the start (Ex: Halfus, Beth'tilac).

7. Chakra: Discovered

Chakra is not what it once used to be. It has evolved from a sometimes buff, to a constant buff to maintain, to, now, a "stance" type buff with a swapping cooldown. I'm not going to go much in depth to what Chakra used to be, rather what it is now and what it means to you.

Chakra: The Cooldown
When you activate Chakra you gain a buff that you will retain until you cast a spell that forces you into a "Chakra state" or "stance" as some call it. Your options for Chakra are the following:

Chakra: Serenity
The "yellow" Chakra! You gain Serenity by casting Chakra and then either Heal, Flash Heal, Greater Heal or Binding Heal. This can be considered your "single target healing" Chakra, as you gain 10% critical chance to direct healing spells and causes your direct heals to refresh the duration of your Renew on the target. When you are within this Chakra your Holy Word becomes Holy Word: Serenity - an instant cast heal that increases your chance to Critically Heal the target by 25% for 6 seconds.

Chakra: Sanctuary
The "blue" Chakra! You gain Sanctuary by casting Chakra and then either Prayer of Healing or Prayer of Mending. This can be considered your "raid healing" Chakra, as you gain 15% increased healing to your AoE spells and Renew as well as reduces your cooldown of Circle of Healing by 2 sec. When you are within this Chakra your Holy Word becomes Holy Word: Sanctuary - 0.5 sec cast ground effect heal.

8. Healing in 25 mans: How to

The #1 tip anyone can ever give you when it comes to raid healing or even healing in general is being proactive. This means knowing each encounter you are going to face inside and out, the following is an example "checklist" you can think about and ask yourself when researching a boss fight before you attempt it to help improve your healing, awareness and overall raid success:

✔ When is damage going to come?
✔ How much does each boss ability hit for?
✔ How long is the fight?
✔ How do I need to manage my cooldowns? Ex. When is a good time to use Hymn of Hope or Divine Hymn?
✔ What spells are going to be best used to counter boss abilities?
✔ How can I utilize my Priest specific abilities best in this encounter? Ex. Leap of Faith, Divine Hymn
✔ When is the raid going to be stacked? Spread out?
✔ How often am I going to have to move?
✔ What kind of stuff am I going to have to move out of?

1. Raid Healing

As a raid healing Holy Priest your main niche is burst AoE healing through Holy Word: Sanctuary, Prayer of Healing and Circle of Healing.

Let's look at a situation where there is going to be heavy, predictable damage coming out, what do you do? The first thing is knowing what your mana is like and whether or not you can afford, or even need, to cast Holy Word: Sanctuary. With 4.3 HW:Sanc's mana cost was reduced and it is also effected by both Inner Will and Mental Agility reductions.

HW:S is a great tool to drop before damage comes out, as it will be a pure HPS boost. The best time would be about 2-3 seconds before damage comes out so then you can begin queuing up a PoH on one of the groups about to take the heavy damage. This is a very important aspect of raid healing - knowing when damage is going to come and being able to prepare for it. Saving those 2 seconds of casting can make a difference between the life and death of a player.

Once you've got your queued PoH going prepare to CoH on someone, if your raid is not stacked be sure to find someone that is near other people, usually best placed on the melee in spread out scenarios, although CoH does heal people within 30 yards of the target and this is a solid distance so there's not too, too much to worry about here. Then continue to PoH a 2nd group, 3rd and so on until everyone is capped up, and use CoH again when it's off cooldown.

When there is "pulsing damage" incoming you are going to want to make sure you have Prayer of Mending up on someone ready to bounce before the damage comes out. Prayer of Mending is an awesome smart heal that heals the person when they take damage and then jumps to someone else within 20 yards up to 5 times and lasts 30 sec on each jump. The tank is a great choice for your initial PoM due to the Glyph that increases its healing done by 60% on the first target.

When the raid is mostly stable and only a few people are getting hit you should use CoH close to on cooldown whenever there are 2-3 or more people that could use the healing. It is also a good idea to use spells such as "Heal" during these low damage times to help top people off without hurting your mana, as Heal is considered a no-cost spell (meaning that your mana doesn't go down when you cast it due to the regen you gain while casting and the small mana cost of the spell).

Another filler spell to use in these low damage situations is Renew. It is a great way to stabilize someone who is not in immediate danger but may or may not take more damage. It's also acceptable to pre-hot people with Renew before going into a damage phase, whether it be heavy damage or pulsing damage. Renew will shine the most in a pulsing damage situation, but should not be overrused. It is a powerful tool when used properly, but it is not a part of your main arsenal - keep that in mind!

While Binding Heal and Flash Heal are not efficient spells, BH is far more efficient than FH. Whenever you've taken damage and another raid member could use the immediate heals don't forget about your awesome BH. Not only does it heal you and them, but it also applies 1 stack of Serendipity, decreasing the cast time and mana cost of your next Greater Heal or Prayer of Healing. You definitely want to take advantage of this buff through BH & FH. In high raid damage situations with high risk of death for members it is great to BH once or twice and then PoH for the increased speed. This is only necessary if you and the other person are near death, and not so much in a situation where everyone in the raid is at equal health because you are essentially spending more mana to get Serendipity and then even more time getting the cast up before you PoH on an entire group that needs heals. Generally don't cast to get Serendipity unless you have somewhat endless time and mana to do so.

Divine Hymn is our new raid cooldown of awesomeness. Try to use it often, or talk to your other healers about when they plan to pop theirs to counter big damage from an encounter. It's important to note that Divine Hymn is affected by Haste in the sense that you gain more ticks from it. The best time to cast DH is during Bloodlust/Heroism (assuming there is raid damage to be healed) because you will get 30-50% more healing out of it. Use that cooldown baby!

2. Triage Healing

Triage is defined as: the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.

"So, how does this apply to healing in raids?!" -Priest

Triage healing is the base of any successful raid, and the healers that can truly handle it are the one's that are going to help the raid succeed the most. Flash Heal is going to be your #1 spell to save lives, followed by PW:S and Greater Heal. You're choice of which heal to use is just as important as which player you choose to heal. If you know that more damage could potentially hit a target at very low health you are going to want to Flash Heal or PW:S. If you know a target is safe from taking more damage but is very low health you are going to want to use your larger, but slower Greater Heal.

Triage healing is also about deciding to take a personal hit on HPS by casting one of your triage heals instead of a PoH. This is something that is very difficult for most raid healers to understand and really train themselves on, but a priceless tool nonetheless. Remember, raiding is about accomplishing your goals as a team, not your personal output! Don't forget about Divine Hymn, which you can read in the Managing and Using Cooldowns section.

3. Assistant Tank Healing

It is true that Holy Priests really shine in the raid healing role but they are also expected to assist in the other duties of healing a raiding encounter, such as assistant tank healing.

"But how am I supposed to help with tank healing when I'm supposed to be spamming those Prayers?!" -Priest

Assistant tank healing is a simple, but very important. The simplest method of performing this task is keeping Renew up on your tank(s). When you're raid healing you will be in Chakra: Sanctuary and therefore your Renew gains an extra 15% bonus healing to it. Your Renew helps keep the tank stabilized alongside other healers.

It is very important for you to watch the health of the tank(s) as well so that, if/when needed, you can throw out a Flash or Greater Heal to help stabilize the tank. These kinds of things can happen when bosses use fatal abilities, a healer dies and/or healer(s) have to move. Another reason to keep an eye on the tank's health is for our awesome tank cooldown: Guardian Spirit. GS can not only save a tank's life but it also provides them with 40% extra healing for its duration. There are 2 different ways to use this cooldown: having a quick reaction time and dropping it on the tank when he/she is low or using it when you know high damage is going to be going out on the tank and they can greatly benefit from the 40% extra healing. Which way you use it is going to depend on your raid and what cooldowns you have available to the tank in general and the abilities of the boss encounter.

Sometimes your raid leader will instruct you when your GS is absolutely needed in an encounter, IE. after boss does X ability or the tank has Y stacks of a debuff. Please communicate with your other healers, tanks and raid leader about when your GS may be needed or if you are able to use it with your best judgement.

4. Managing and Using Cooldowns

Divine Hymn is our new raid cooldown of awesomeness. Try to use it often, or talk to your other healers about when they plan to pop theirs to counter big damage from an encounter. It's important to note that Divine Hymn is affected by Haste in the sense that you gain more ticks from it. The best time to cast DH is during Bloodlust/Heroism (assuming there is raid damage to be healed) because you will get almost 3x as much healing out of it. Use that cooldown baby!

Lightwell is kind of a Holy Priest's "signature spell." The best method is to cast it before the encounter starts so that it is essentially mana free and then on cooldown thereafter. If you know that your raid group is going to be moving from the west side of the room to the east, don't cast it on the west, rather wait and cast it when you move or cast it as close to where you're going to be from where you are (assuming the raid will be in range to even use it from that location). Creating a macro for Lightwell alerting people that you have dropped it is also a great way to create awareness, such as:

Code:

#showtooltip
/cast Lightwell
/say >> Lightwell is down! <<

Creating awareness of the amazing effects of Lightwell (it can be better than a healthstone) and keeping your positioning consistent throughout each encounter are great ways to get your raid members to use Lightwell more often. I have also found that a quick "Don't forget about Lightwell!" on vent when there is high damage coming or has come helps worlds as well.

Leap of Faith can be a game changer, in both the sense of positively and negatively. Discuss with your raid when and where your LoF (also known as Lifegrip) can be useful within an encounter. Always make sure when you are going to grip someone that you are not gripping them into danger or causing them to hit an object between you and them that may wipe the raid (such as meteors in P3 of Ragnaros in Firelands). This is usually not a spell you are going to use on cooldown, but can really make the difference in an encounter.

Assuming you take Desperate Prayer in your spec (which I highly recommend as it is a multi-use per encounter, better than healthstone cooldown) you will most likely want to use it whenever you find yourself below 50% HP. The best times to use it are when multiple people are low and other healers aren't likely to heal you at that moment, you cannot directly heal yourself, your entire raid is moving, there is more large damage incoming, there is the chance that you may get hit by more damage very soon or you are very, very close to death. Don't forget that if you also spec into Blessed Resilience you will gain even more healing from this spell, making the 2 work together very well.

I've already discussed Guardian Spirit in the previous section, so for information on that please see Assistant Tank Healing.

Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend will be discussed in the next section: Managing Your Mana.

4. Managing Your Mana

Given the nature of 25 man raiding and the many different comps of healers you potentially could have there are a lot of variables in managing your mana. In this section I will ignore, for the most part, external regen components that you gain from other classes.

As Holy Priests we have 2 spells that work together very, very well for a burst of mana regen: Hymn of Hope and Shadowfiend. Since Shadowfiend returns mana based on your maximum mana, and HoH increases your maximum mana by 15%, it is silly to not use them together. The best way to handle these 2 together is to cast Shadowfiend and then immediately begin channeling HoH. To do this you need to fully understand fight mechanics and take some things into consideration.

Is there damage that may be coming in very soon? If so, wait to use your combo until after the damage is healed up, unless you are absolutely out of mana. Are you going to have to move very soon? If so, wait until after you move or move ahead of the raid, barring any mechanics that may cause a wipe from your moving early. Are you about to receive any external mana from buffs such as Mana Tide or Innervate? If so, you might want to wait to use your combo and maybe next time use it earlier if the fight warrants it.

In an excessively long fight with the talent Veiled Shadows you will get to use Shadowfiend many more times than you get to use HoH. A great way to balance this is to use Shadowfiend by itself for your first cooldown early into the fight and then use the HoH later in the fight to give you more mana back, and others in your raid.

If you feel that you not only need the 15% mana buff from HoH but also the 2% mana every 2 seconds then you should take into consideration other raiders' mana before you cast HoH. Only the 3 lowest mana users will gain that extra mana, so make sure you are very low before using HoH comparatively. This is not necessary every time you use your combo, as the Shadowfiend + HoH buff alone give you back most of your mana.

These same methods apply to using a mana potion. Are you only going to need the 10,000 mana that a Mythical Mana Potion provides? Or will you better benefit from the 22,000 mana that a Potion of Concentration provides? In most cases you should be using the Potion of Concentration due to it's extra mana gain. The channel you have to do for the potion is not interrupted by damage so you as long as you get at least half of the channel off, you are netting the same mana as a Mythical. The key here is to use them when there is little to no damage currently going out and be sure to let your other healers know you are using it!

A lot of Cataclysm encounters have very high damage last "burn" phases. It is very important for you to go into these phases with as much mana as possible because they will usually require you to pump out insane heals to keep everyone alive while you burn down that last bit of a bosses health. Make sure you use your channeled cooldowns and potions well before these phases so that you are not finding yourself having to channel a potion while people are dying because you didn't plan ahead.

Spell choices are just as much a part of managing your mana as using your actual mana cooldowns. For instance, if there's only 2 people in a group that need very minimal healing and are in no danger of dying don't PoH them just to "pad" the meters as you're wasting mana that you could be using later on for a Flash Heal to save someone's life. Trust that your other healers are going to top them off, especially in situations where most people are standing in a Shaman's Healing Rain, etc.

8. Healing in 10 mans: How to

The #1 tip anyone can ever give you when it comes to raid healing or even healing in general is being proactive. This means knowing each encounter you are going to face inside and out, the following is an example "checklist" you can think about and ask yourself when researching a boss fight before you attempt it to help improve your healing, awareness and overall raid success:

✔ When is damage going to come?
✔ How much does each boss ability hit for?
✔ How long is the fight?
✔ How do I need to manage my cooldowns? Ex. When is a good time to use Hymn of Hope or Divine Hymn?
✔ What spells are going to be best used to counter boss abilities?
✔ How can I utilize my Priest specific abilities best in this encounter? Ex. Leap of Faith, Divine Hymn
✔ When is the raid going to be stacked? Spread out?
✔ How often am I going to have to move?
✔ What kind of stuff am I going to have to move out of?

The following is written by Ashleycakez of <Seraphim>. I did not feel equipped to write about raid healing in 10 mans so she kindly provided this part of the guide for you guys! There are many aspects of my healing 25 mans section that apply to overall healing, so be sure to read that section as well, even if you only raid in 10s!

1. Raid Healing

For AoE healing in a raid, Chakra: Sanctuary is the Chakra state one should use. Chakra: Sanctuary provides substantial buffs to Holy Priest AoE healing spells. These spells consist of Prayer of Mending, Prayer of Healing, Circle of Healing, Holy Nova, and Holy Word: Sanctuary. Chakra: Sanctuary also increases the healing done by Renew. I highly recommend using Inner Will when AoE healing as the mana reduction now benefits Holy Word: Sanctuary, making it slightly more mana efficient to use for healing 5 players on 10 man than Prayer of Healing.

Prayer of Healing is your go-to spell for raid damage. Allowing the Glyph of Prayer of healing to tick on each group is recommended. On a few fights, like Ultraxion, it may be better to continuously cast Prayer of Healing, with Circle of Healing woven in, as the raid damage is too high to justify allowing the glyph to tick for its full duration.

Circle of Healing should be used on cooldown when applicable. If a group of players are standing together that Prayer of Healing would otherwise not take care of, then Circle of Healing should be your go-to heal. An example of this is on a fight like Yor’sahj where 3-4 players may take damage from the Red buff on the boss, but these players may not all be in the same group, thus rendering Prayer of Healing as a less effective spell.

Prayer of Mending should be used with discretion. While it is possible to cast it on cooldown, typically starting on your current tank, often times it is not needed. This is to be determined on a fight-to-fight basis. On a fight with high damage like Ultraxion, it is more beneficial to cast PoM on CD rather than on a fight with predictable raid-wide damage like Morchok. If Prayer of Mending isn’t bouncing around, it might be worthwhile to focus on other spells.

Holy Word: Sanctuary is now a great spell to use in 10 man. In 4.3, HW: Sanc was fixed to correctly benefit from mana cost reductions like Mental Agility (talent) and Inner Will. It can now be reasonably used on 5 players in 10 man, but ideally it should be reserved for when your raid is stacked. Note: on Hagara, HW: Sanctuary will heal the players in ice tombs if it is placed beneath it.

Renew can be maintained on your tank(s) in cases of light raid damage. Otherwise, it is more beneficial to focus on using other spells in your arsenal for AoE healing.

For single target healing, like Spine when the Amalgamation isn’t near death, Chakra: Serenity is the state to use combined with Inner Fire. Chakra: Serenity enhances the single target heals of the Holy Priest and refreshes Renew via direct heals.

Place Renew on a target and follow with a direct heal. Rotate through various players by using Heal (light damage/cheap way to refresh Renew), HW: Serenity (light damage/cheap), Greater Heal (player has a health deficit), or Flash Heal (player has a large health deficit).

When faced with a single target healing situation, like Alysrazor or Baleroc, where there is one target that needs your focus, it is best to use a 2x Flash Heal rotation followed by a Greater Heal – making use of the Serendipity talent. Use HW: Serenity on CD as needed, and sprinkle in the occasional Heal if damage is low.

In either case, never be afraid to cast a Greater Heal when in Chakra: Sanctuary or a Prayer of Healing when in Chakra: Serenity. The only spell one really must change Chakra states to cast (aside from Holy Word spells) is Divine Hymn. Make sure you are in Chakra: Sanctuary before channeling this heal to increase output.

2. Triage Healing

From the healing 25 mans section:Triage is defined as: the sorting of and allocation of treatment to patients and especially battle and disaster victims according to a system of priorities designed to maximize the number of survivors.

"So, how does this apply to healing in raids?!" -Priest

Triage healing is the base of any successful raid, and the healers that can truly handle it are the one's that are going to help the raid succeed the most. Flash Heal is going to be your #1 spell to save lives, followed by PW:S and Greater Heal. You're choice of which heal to use is just as important as which player you choose to heal. If you know that more damage could potentially hit a target at very low health you are going to want to Flash Heal or PW:S. If you know a target is safe from taking more damage but is very low health you are going to want to use your larger, but slower Greater Heal.

Triage healing is also about deciding to take a personal hit on HPS by casting one of your triage heals instead of a PoH. This is something that is very difficult for most raid healers to understand and really train themselves on, but a priceless tool nonetheless. Remember, raiding is about accomplishing your goals as a team, not your personal output! Don't forget about Divine Hymn, which you can read in the Managing and Using Cooldowns section.

And Ashleycakez take on it for 10 mans
Cataclysm has taken away the snipe healing that was once the norm in WotLK. The raid damage in Cataclysm raids, for the most part, comes within periods of a set amount of time, rather than pulsing constantly.

You must assess who in your raid needs the most healing before spending nearly 6k mana on a Flash Heal to heal a dps who may not take another hit for another 20 seconds, rather than the tank who might be sitting at 20% health. Heal your tank first before a dps. Make sure to use Binding Heal if you have also taken damage. Binding Heal costs the same amount of mana as Flash Heal and allows you to get yourself and a fellow raider up.

3. Assistant Tank Healing

Holy Priests aren’t the strongest tank healers, even in Chakra: Serenity. However, there is no reason why you should avoid healing the tank in your encounters.

The mana reduction of Renew and the increased healing of it from Chakra: Sanctuary has made it viable to keep reapplying to a target. Make sure you keep Renew on your tank(s) as much as you can.

Try to reserve your Flash Heals for your tanks as well if at all possible. Do not be afraid to cast Greater Heal or Heal while in Chakra: Sanctuary. You and your other healers work together as a team – help them and they will help you.

4. Managing and Using Cooldowns

Prior to starting a fight, discuss with your fellow healers and your raid leader about what raid or single target CD will be used when. Often times there is no need for an ill timed Divine Hymn being channeled at the same time as a Druid’s Tranquility. Be aware of Spirit Link Totem (Resto Shaman), Rallying Cry (all Warriors), Power Word: Barrier (Disc Priests) and Divine Guardian (Protection Paladins). These are all powerful raid cooldowns that you may or may not want to combine with Divine Hymn.

Don’t just use Guardian Spirit on the fly, the glyph no longer resets the CD to one minute if the heal isn’t triggered. Speak with your tanks about when they want you to use GS on them, or have them actively call it out during raid. Communication is the key to prevent overlapping GS with a personal tank CD.

If your raid regularly uses Lightwell, make sure you are tracking its cooldown so it is always used. Don’t go 1 minute past its cooldown with your raiders frantically looking for it or calling for it in vent. Placing Lightwell in the same position for each fight every week is also an excellent way to utilize it. Not only will your raiders know where it is, they may actually use it without you having to tell them! Lightwell goes far in an 10 man environment – glyph it if your raiders use it!

Desperate Prayer is also a great personal cooldown for those times when you stand in fire just a little too long. Make sure you keep an eye on this cooldown as well, otherwise you may find yourself trying to use it before it’s up again.

4. Managing Your Mana

Mana management is vital to your success in a 10 man environment. Whereas 25 man guilds will probably have a Resto Shaman (or two) in a raid, and various dps Druids, your 10 man may have none of the above.

In order to regen the most mana you possibly can, watch for intellect procs from enchants such as Power Torrent and Lightweave Embroidery. On use intellect trinkets are also something to use to regenerate your mana. The idea for this is as follows: Shadowfiend returns 3% of your maximum mana when it is used. Intellect procs increase your mana. Once you have an intellect proc up, send in your Shadowfiend and begin to channel Hymn of Hope. Hymn of Hope will further increase your mana pool, thus resulting in an almost complete regeneration of your mana pool. If you are unaccustomed to this method, don’t be discouraged if it takes you a few times to get it perfect. Often, just a Shadowfiend and HoH will do the trick and you can continue healing for the remainder of the encounter.

Announcing your Hymn of Hope channel, either via vent or a /s or /y macro will also benefit your other healers. Resto Druids can time it to their Innervate and Holy Paladins can time it to their Divine Plea as both of these moves are also dependent on maximum mana.

If you are fortunate enough to raid with a Resto Shaman, arrange when she will drop Mana Tide Totem so that you don’t overlap a Shadowfiend/HoH with another powerful regen tool. Perhaps the Shaman can drop her totem 1.5 minutes into a fight, and at the 3 minute mark you will use your Shadowfiend/HoH to get yourself back up to full.

10. Useful Addons

Over the years many addons have been used and discarded and better ones come along and sometimes you just have to learn to live without them. The most important thing to remember when using addons to help your healing and gameplay is to never rely on them. If you use a cooldown tracker make sure you also have a "counter" inside of your head and get a feel for when your cooldowns are coming off cooldown so if the addon fails your healing won't fail along with it. These are recommendations on addons that can help you heal more efficiently, track cooldowns easier and provide information quicker.

Grid - One of the 2 most commonly used raid frame mods. It requires some setup to get it how you want it but it is well worth the time and your options are really endless.

Priest AoE - This addon has had the biggest impact on Grid in my opinion. It shows you, via an icon, color or text that you place, who is the best target in your raid and each party to cast PoH and CoH on to gain a threshold of healing that you can set. This is absolutely amazing in settings where the raid is somewhat spread out and you, obviously, want to hit as many people in the party as possible, this will help make that happen.

Mana Bars - It's always a good idea to track the mana of your fellow healers so you can help them out, use Hymn of Hope at a prime time, etc. I suggest making this bar rather skinny so it is not too obtrusive in your quest to keep health bars from reaching 0.

Side Icons & Corner Icons - Track as many things as you can. PoM, Renew, PW:S, WS, PS, GS, Rejuv, Regrowth, Lifebloom, Riptide, Earth Shield - by tracking other healers' buffs and hots you will become more of a team player within a raid by not, inadvertently, sniping their hots. It is also useful to see, ok this tank has no hots I better prepare to heal him, etc.

Raid Debuff - This addon, usually, adds raid debuffs automatically to center icon so you are aware who has important debuffs.

Heal Trace - Shows via icon, text or color who is being healed by your AoE spells. I have found this addon to be great with CoH and Divine Hymn tracking - I'd also suggest showing the Divine Hymn +10% healing buff as an icon, color or text to one of your available areas to best make use of DH. For CoH it's great to see how many people and who you are actually healing with it instead of just assuming it's doing a good job.

Clique - A great tie in with Grid and other raid frames. This addon allows you to easily create mouseover and click cast combination heals. I highly recommend using at least mouseovers for all of your spells as it can greatly increase your healing throughput and ability to save lives. Yes, in the long run that 0.5 sec you are saving by using mouseovers/clicks adds up over clicking a person then hitting a keybind. Make sure your most commonly used spells such as PoH, CoH and PoM are very easy to hit as well as your important cooldowns such as Guardian Spirit.

Vuhdo - One of the 2 most commonly used raid frame mods. Provides healing through keybinds and click combinations.

Power Auras Classic - Easily one of the most powerful raiding addons out there next to boss mods. You can use PA to track your spell cooldowns, buffs, buff timers, debuffs, debuff timers, etc. Below are some import code samples that you can use to start up your collection of Power Auras.

This is the most comprehensive, easiest to read, smartly written guide on proper holy priest play I've ever read. A bit of a dodge on stat weighting, but I think the right call in this situation. To bring it to the next level, I'd include a tips & tricks section [SW:D/ProM bounce | How to heal someone 70 yards away with PoH | HoH Stacking | etc].

Here's my contribution to the thread. If you like it, feel free to add it. Editing is fine to fit the theme of your post. I'm not sure how to make the enchants show up as tooltips or whatever. But anyway, here is some additional assessment. Who needs EJ?

Ramennoodleking says:

Don't be a fool! Enchant that tool!

Enchanting your gear is necessary for any priest looking to be taken seriously. Enchants bolster your healing capacity, and let's face it, noone wants to be caught at the public pool without a glowing weapon.

Recommended enchants:

Head - Arcanum of Hyjal - 60 int, 35 crit

This is the only one available for casters, so make sure you attain Revered with the Guardians of Hyjal.

You can obtain this through exalted Therezane reputation. There is a lesser version at revered, but you should always strive for the best. If you are a Scribe, substitute with your proffession's bonus.

Back - Greater Intellect - 50 int

Intellect is king! If you are a Tailor, you should substitute this with Darkglow or Lightweave Embroidery. I recommend Darkglow for the Spirit proc at lower gear levels and Lightweave for the intellect as you progress in gear and tier of dungeon, approximately when you reach an item level of around 359 on each slot. Your mileage may vary, so proceed based off your own circumstances. General concensus is to progress towards Lightweave.

Chest - Peerless Stats - 20 to all stats

There is a weaker version of this as well as a 40 spirit enchant, but ultimately this is the best possible enchant for your chest.

Wrists - Mighty Intellect - 50 int

There is no debating that this is the enchant to go with. If you can't afford it then there are haste and spirit alternatives, but you want to be the best, right? IF you are a leatherworker, replace this with the +130 int enchant.

Hands - Greater Mastery - 65 mastery

15 extra secondary stats over the alternatives.

Belt - Ebonsteel Belt Buckle - 40 int gem

This consumable "enchant" adds an extra gem slot to your belt. Take advantage of the resulting prismatic slot with a clean new 40 int gem.

Legs - Powerful Ghostly Spellthread - 95 int, 55 spirit

Best enchant for the slot. There is a weaker version of this as well as a version with stamina in place of spirit. Go with this one, though.

It all boils down, again, to personal preference. Bear in mind, however, that the run speed increase of Lavawalker can be supplemented with a quick swap to Inner Will, so I recommend going with either Mastery or Haste.

Weapon - Heartsong or Power Torrent - Spirit proc or Intellect proc

At lower gear/skill levels you may want to stick with Heartsong since it is a bit more mp5 and one less thing you will have to manage. Power Torrent, however, is what you want to progress towards. When tracked properly, you can time your Shadowfiend with a Power Torrent proc to increase mana regen quite handily.

Proffessions:

All crafting professions average out to the same bonus of +80 int.
Herbalism gives a haste proc, meh. Mining and skinning are both utter garbage.

Arguably, however, the "best" proffessions are Engineering and Tailoring. Engineering gives you 480 intellect for 15 seconds on-use with a 1 minute cooldown. Tailoring can proc 580 intellect. A perfect storm of Power Torrent, Lightweave, and Synapse Springs (not to mention Fiery Quintessence, if you have it!) will give you a ridiculous mana pool. Popping a Shadowfiend and Hymn of Hope here will probably give you more mana than you could ever hope to deal with. Further, Engineering allows you to "throttle" your throughput, which is simply a great tool. I know on-use items are sometimes looked down upon for lack of ease, but they are worth their weight in gold since you can personally choose when you need that extra boost.

Again, all professions level out to 80 int, so choose which appeals to you most.

Ramennoodleking also says:

A note on the Haste vs. Mastery debate. Think of raid healing as trying to put icing on a cake. Haste is that moment where you are just slopping icing onto the cake, trying to put enough on there to allow the cake to be completely covered and ready to go. Haste gets that icing on the cake quickly, before flies settle in and get stuck in the icing, hidden from view. Mastery, on the other hand, is like taking that baker's tool thingy and smoothing the applied icing out, making it look all pretty and ready for your best friend's wedding, who unfortunately for you is marrying the guy/girl that you secretly love.

The point is, haste allows you to get everyone back to an acceptable health level before the next wave of disaster strikes. It by no means will look pretty, but it is that first bit of effort necessary. Mastery then cleans the raid back up, ticking in conjunction with other HoTs to smooth the raid back over and top them back up.

I put a link to Ynna's guide in the disclaimers - would you like me to keep it in both places or just where you/I put it?

Thanks everyone! I spent a lot of time on this and I'm happy to see everyone enjoys it

Originally Posted by CaseyTheRetard

All the math in this section is assuming 3% Haste from Darkness.

Originally that is what Kilee said he was making the math on, but I have specced into only 2/3 Darkness and gotten the 2.1 cast time benefit on ~1290 rating, therefore you do not need to spec into 3/3 (unless Quartz is just rounding the visual number to 2.1 if it's really close to 2.1?) - I would love for someone to verify this with mathy math.

@Ramen - thanks for all of that stuff! I will try to implement it sometime this week. I just feel as though those are things more suited to be in Ynna's beginner guide as most of them are "obvious" and that wasn't really the focus of my guide. It was more on the aspects of raiding rather than little things like enchants, so I will think about it

Originally that is what Kilee said he was making the math on, but I have specced into only 2/3 Darkness and gotten the 2.1 cast time benefit on ~1290 rating, therefore you do not need to spec into 3/3 (unless Quartz is just rounding the visual number to 2.1 if it's really close to 2.1?) - I would love for someone to verify this with mathy math.

Quartz is rounding; I'm pretty sure - haven't used it for a while - that you can set it to show you 2 decimal places. Would you like me to give you a set of numbers for 2/3 Darkness?

And off the topic of nitpicking the math, this truly is an excellent guide.

I have a question about Hymn of Hope and how it works. It increases my mana pool by 15% but after the buff expires how does my mana go back? Let's say I had 90% of my total mana with the buff, will I have 90% mana after the buff or will I have almost 100% mana? I hope you get what I mean.

A question about Power Torrent vs Heartsong, due to Holy Concentration and Meditation isn't Heartsong even sometimes better than Power Torrent for Holy?

I have a question about Hymn of Hope and how it works. It increases my mana pool by 15% but after the buff expires how does my mana go back? Let's say I had 90% of my total mana with the buff, will I have 90% mana after the buff or will I have almost 100% mana? I hope you get what I mean.

I'm pretty sure it would technically put you at 105% mana, which in turn would be 100%. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Originally Posted by Ariadne

A question about Power Torrent vs Heartsong, due to Holy Concentration and Meditation isn't Heartsong even sometimes better than Power Torrent for Holy?

The gain from Heartsong at the current raiding level isn't worth the overall loss from taking Power Torrent instead. You really don't need that much regen overall (such as Heartsong would give) but you do need the throughput and mana pool that Power Torrent gives you (int increases your mana pool so if you -can-time fiend + hoh with PT proc you'll get even more).

When you first get into heroic 5 mans Heartsong will be better, but on a 359+ weapon I'd put PT on it if I were you.